Vancouver Opera

vancouveropera.ca

       

 

Joan Sutherland in VO’s 1976 production of The Merry Widow. Vancouver Opera archives.

 

For over 60 seasons, Vancouver Opera has created extraordinary experiences that engage, inspire, and entertain the community through voice, music and theatre.

Vancouver Opera is the second largest professional opera company in Canada and home to the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, one of only two professional opera orchestras in Canada. Vancouver Opera is regarded worldwide for its fine mainstage productions; for its country-leading education programs; for its innovative and award-winning community programs; and for forging groundbreaking cross-cultural creative partnerships that have brought opera to new generations of Canadians in recent history.

Vancouver Opera was founded in 1958 by a group of visionary community leaders who believed in the essential value of the performing arts to the life of a great city and who recognized the power of opera to connect people to the universal human drama. In their view, a resident professional opera company was vital to the future of Vancouver.

After its founding, Vancouver Opera quickly moved to the centre of the city’s and region’s cultural life and has remained there ever since. In recent years, the company has intensified and broadened its role as a major creative, educational, and collaborative resource in the community, all while creating full productions on the Queen Elizabeth Theatre stage.

Throughout its history, the company has attracted such internationally acclaimed singers as Ewa Podles, James Morris, Samuel Ramey, Ruth Ann Swenson, James McCracken, Reri Grist, Victor Braun, John Alexander, Maria Pellegrini, Huguette Tourangeau, Paul Plishka, Regina Resnik, and Elizabeth Futral.

Tickets and subscriptions can be purchased at vancouveropera.ca

Vancouver Opera also leads the community and the country in its education programs. Launched in 1972, Vancouver Opera In Schools is the largest touring program of its kind in Canada. Each season, it introduces the power and beauty of opera to about 50,000 school children and their families across B.C. and beyond.